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Geraint Thomas Wins Tour de Romandie Prologue

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Geraint Thomas gets a sweet treat or two on the podium in Lausanne. Photo Fotoreporter Sirotti.

Geraint Thomas Wins Tour de Romandie Prologue

Team Sky's Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) powered to victory in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie 2012 and thereby also claimed the overall lead in the race.

Team Sky's Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) powered to victory in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie 2012 and thereby also claimed the overall lead in the race.

Thomas put his track racing experience to good use across the 3.34-kilometer course in Lausanne to set a blistering time of three minutes and 29 seconds as the Swiss stage race got under way.

Thomas' teammate road cycling World Champion Mark Cavendish put in a superb performance to clock a time of 3:35 and secure a 3rd position in the overall rankings. Cavendish is thus in a good position to claim the overall race lead from Thomas in coming stage sprint finishes before the 2012 Tour de Romandie reaches its climax in the tough mountain stage on Saturday April 28. GC hopeful Michael Rogers claimed fourth in what was a resounding success for the team.

Commenting on today's victory and performance Thomas told Roadcycling.com "I always knew that I had a good chance. But it's one thing knowing that you have a good chance and another thing winning. It's very nice. Obviously the weather played a big part in that but there was only really one corner and you can only lose so much time. But it's great to win and at a lovely race as well. I raced here last year so it's great to come back and get this win."

Thomas was fortunate to have picked an early start time in today's prologue. The rain began to fall and the wind increased as the later riders left the start ramp in Lausanne, yet just as in Paris-Nice, Bradley Wiggins was able to pull out an impressive ride in difficult conditions to register a time just nine seconds off that of Thomas.

Defending Tour of Romandy champion Cadel Evans' weak prologue performance was affected by the poor weather conditions and it was clear that he did not want to take any chances in the two sharp corners that were part of the prologue course. After a period of illness, Evans is hoping for warm racing conditions to dominate the rest of the week of racing in Switzerland.

"I don't think with my condition I wouldn't have been close to the specialists today, so the rain slowed me down even more," Team BMC Racing's Evans told Roadcycling.com. "But it wasn't my course or my distance. I hope the weather turns a bit better because I've been sick and so on. I hope to get some racing in my legs and with a couple days racing, I think I can get a bit better. Then we can see what we can do a little bit later in the week."

Evans' main competitor in the coming Tour de France Bradley Wiggins finished 11th today while Evans himself finished in 80th position.

Team Garmin-Barracuda's time trial ace Dave Zabriskie rode today's prologue on his brand new Cervelo P5. However, likely affected by the weather he finished in 21st position, almost 11 seconds behind the winning Thomas.

Zabriskie's teammate Alex Rasmussen came to Romandie in order to secure